Cover Story
Blazing a trail: Earliest evidence of humans making fire discovered in Suffolk Excavations at East Farm, Barnham, have uncovered the oldest-known traces of deliberate fire-making – a game-changing step in the human story that we now know took place 350,000 years earlier than was previously thought. Carly Hilts reports. Features
Lord of the Isles: Uncovering Finlaggan’s elite archaeology The Lords of the Isles ruled large swathes of the western islands and highlands of Scotland between 1140 and 1493, but documentary evidence for their activities is thin and the… 
Hadrian’s Wall and its trees: From Sycamore Gap to the Vindolanda tablets Hadrian’s Wall may be primarily associated with stone fortifications, but trees played a key role in Roman life on the northern frontier. Complementing our preceding geological exploration of this region,… 
Rediscovering west London’s lost landscapes: Six millennia of change and continuity at Sipson Farm Today, Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport – but the underlying and surrounding river terraces have long been a rich hunting ground for archaeologists, concealing a palimpsest of buried landscapes. Since… 
Between a rock and a hard place: Exploring the geology of Hadrian’s Wall Archaeologists have long sought to understand how the Romans made use of natural resources on their northern frontier, both in constructing its famous fortifications and supporting the lives of those… News
World News New Kingdom fortress found Excavations at the site of Tell el-Kharouba in North Sinai, Egypt, have uncovered the remains of a large military fortress dating to the New Kingdom period,… 
Getting off on the right foot in Roman Canterbury Researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University have developed a novel method for visualising Roman footwear, even in cases where the leather has completely disintegrated, by using radiography on soil-blocks containing… 
Unearthing an Anglo-Saxon village in East Anglia A major excavation, undertaken in advance of the East Anglia TWO and ONE North developments by ScottishPower Renewables, has uncovered 6,000 years of human activity within an East Anglian landscape,… 
Interpreting the imagery of the Ketton mosaic Further analysis of the ‘Trojan War’ mosaic, first discovered at Ketton, Rutland, in 2020 (see CA 383), has revealed more details about its imagery, suggesting that Roman Britain was not… 
Excavating the hidden history of the Houses of Parliament Archaeological investigations in and around the Houses of Parliament have uncovered remains spanning the last 6,000 years, highlighting the site’s importance not just in modern history, but during the medieval… 
Possibility of pits at Durrington Walls? Recent fieldwork at the Durrington Walls ‘superhenge’ has explored a series of large pits forming what appears to be a 2km-wide (1.2 mile) circular boundary around the monument, revealing new… 
Science Notes: Determining the development of dog diversity The extraordinary diversity of modern dog types is often attributed to Victorian breeding practices, which led to a major increase in the number of dog breeds. A recent study looking… 
Wildcats in Neolithic Ireland The skeletal remains of a wildcat, found in the Burren, Co. Clare, have been radiocarbon dated to c.3600 BC, providing the first concrete evidence that this species, now-extinct in Ireland,… 
Surveying Sennen A recent field-walking and metal-detecting event in coastal Cornwall has added new details to our knowledge of the area, from prehistory to the present day. Laura Miucci reports. Views
Current Archaeology’s January Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home What's on There are lots of great ways to get involved with history and archaeology over the next few months, including exhibitions, lectures, and conferences exploring a wide range of subjects. If… 
Finds Tray: Copper-alloy mount Objects This copper-alloy mount or strap link was discovered by a metal- detectorist in June 2025, near Snape in Suffolk. It has few parallels, and most other similar items come from… 
Current Archaeology Live! 2026 What's on In partnership with: Current Archaeology Live! 2026 will be here before we know it, and tickets are selling fast. The conference, again held in partnership with University College London’s Institute… 
CA 431 Letters – January Letters Memories of Gallowgate Reading your news article ‘Evidence of Glasgow’s medieval expansion uncovered at Gallowgate’ (CA 429) reminded me of previous work carried out in the area as part of… 
Not in mint condition: Mint House, Pevensey The Picture Desk Mint House is a Grade II*-listed timber-frame building, which stands opposite Pevensey Castle on Pevensey High Street in East Sussex. It has been on the Heritage at Risk Register since… 
Neolithic and/or Bronze Age mines: Excavating the CA archive Comment Since CA 428, my columns have focused on prehistoric Britain, and while researching these I read about a series of mines dating to the Neolithic and/or Bronze Age. This is… 
Students reading decline Comment A sign that Sherds saw in a bookshop recently claimed that ‘reading is cheaper than therapy’, but universities in the UK are reporting the opposite: that students suffer stress when… 
Cooling Tower Appreciation Society Groups Reviled when they were first constructed, cooling towers are now admired for their gracious hyperboloid curves and sculptural presence, just as they are about to disappear from the landscape. The… Reviews
Cremation in the Early Middle Ages: death, fire, and identity in north-west Europe REVIEW BY SAM LEGGETT This volume reads as a ‘Who’s Who’ of early medieval cremation research, with most of the top historians, funerary-, and bio-archaeologists assembled. Williams and Lippok have… 
From Coast to Fen: archaeology in a dynamic landscape, the archaeology of the Triton Knoll Electrical System, Lincolnshire REVIEW BY JONATHAN LAST Cable routes and similar projects are a challenge to archaeologists because their narrow footprints are not necessarily representative of the broad landscapes they pass through. Yet… 
The Neolithic in Jersey REVIEW BY KK This book synthesises what is currently known about the Neolithic in Jersey, highlighting the fact that while our knowledge for some areas of the island and for… 
The Story of English Banknotes REVIEW BY KK This is a nice short book on the history of the English banknote, and is rather timely, with the era of the banknote seemingly coming to an… 
Winchester: city of kings REVIEW BY SIMON ROFFEY Winchester: city of kings presents an authoritative exploration of one of England’s most historic cities, and one that has been the subject of extensive archaeological research.… Current Archaeology’s January Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home There are lots of great ways to get involved with history and archaeology over the next few months, including exhibitions, lectures, and conferences exploring a wide range of subjects. If… Current Archaeology Live! 2026 In partnership with: Current Archaeology Live! 2026 will be here before we know it, and tickets are selling fast. The conference, again held in partnership with University College London’s Institute… 
Landscape and Society in Dumnonia REVIEW BY JACQUELINE A NOWAKOWSKI Diligent reporting of a dispersed hoard of more than 50 Roman coins by metal-detectorists to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) in 2009 led to a… 
From the editor
Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely break over the Christmas period.
Winter always puts me in mind of cosy fireplaces –but when did humans first learn how to create fire for themselves, rather than relying on embers from lightning strikes and wildfires? New evidence from Barnham in Suffolk has pushed this story back hundreds of thousands of years further than previously thought. Our cover feature explores this exciting discovery, and the revolutionary biological, technological, and social changes that were sparked by being able to harness flames on demand.
We then travel to Sipson Farm, 500m from Heathrow Airport. Today the surrounding area is dominated by modern infrastructure, but a five year excavation has revealed evidence of human activity spanning 6,000 years.
Moving from a wide landscape to small islands, our next feature explores the archaeology of Loch Finlaggan on Islay, once a key power centre for the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. Why did an apparent backwater blossom into a site of such strategic importance – and what has been learned about the area’s broader history?
Finally, we visit Hadrian’s Wall, examining these famous fortifications from a rather different perspective in our two concluding articles. What can we learn about life on the Roman frontier by examining the region’s geology, and the ways in which its occupants related to and used trees?
This issue also includes further details of our upcoming conference. CA Live! 2026 will be on 28 February, run in partnership with UCL’s Institute of Archaeology. Turn to p.60 for the latest information about the event, and the nominees for our annual awards.
CARLY
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